Ariel Gore on how killing your television will make you happier

Ariel Gore is a feminist journalist and author whose books I've enjoyed for years. The daughter of hippies, she was once warned by her mother, "Commercialism is a vacuum. It will suck you in." Now three sociological and psychological research studies in the past five years are showing just what her mom knew way back in the 1970s: there's causation, not just coincidence, when a person says that they're happy, and that they also tend not to watch much TV. Ariel's advice:

And so, may I suggest, just as an experiment, just as a quick study in living: Kill your television.

You don't have to go smash it in the street. This is just an experiment, after all. Do what my mother used to do--just hide it in the garage.

Leave it out there for two weeks.

Driberally tonight

Drinking Liberally is a weekly social gathering where progressives talk politics and get to know one another. In Center City Philadelphia, we meet on Tuesday nights at Triumph Brewery's upstairs bar, where there are drink and food specials from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. I hope to see you there!

Triumph Brewery is at 117 Chestnut Street in Old City. It's conveniently SEPTA-accessible via the Market-Frankford El (2nd Street station), all the buses that turn around at or near Penn's Landing (5, 12, 17, 21, 33, 42, 48), and a few other buses that pass nearby (9, 25, 38, 40, 44, 47, 57, 61).

This week's topic: It's the last Center City Drinking Liberally of 2009. The frightfully cold, windy weather has driven one of the co-hosts away for a week's vacation in the tropics. It's driven one of the regulars to Kazakhstan, where it's probably warmer. Though we won't be making anybody sing "Auld Lang Syne" tonight, let's get together to kick 2009 out the door and welcome in 2010. What do you say?

"Come for the beer, stay for the check"

Christmas extended until late afternoon on the 27th

My holidays are being protracted under family obligation circumstances beyond my control.

Luckily, I laid in a store of Scotch on the 24th.

Happy merry

"There are amazing things claimed about Mithras . . ."



Happy birthday, Mithras!

Friday jukebox: Bruce Springsteen

I'm a sucker for this song:



I love the "olden days" views of Philadelphia, where you could touch the Liberty Bell (without risking being shot) and run back and forth across Chestnut Street between 5th and 6th to see Independence Hall (without risking being shot).

Meet Me in St. Louis is the only Christmas movie you ever need to see

And you only ever need to see the following 2:29 of it:

Quote of the season

"Saying that there's a war on Christmas because some people don't spontaneously wish you a merry one is like saying there's a war on your dick because some people won't suck it." -- Arthur Hlavaty

Driberally tonight

Drinking Liberally is a weekly social gathering where progressives talk politics and get to know one another. In Center City Philadelphia, we meet on Tuesday nights at Triumph Brewery's upstairs bar, where there are drink and food specials from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. I hope to see you there!

Triumph Brewery is at 117 Chestnut Street in Old City. It's conveniently SEPTA-accessible via the Market-Frankford El (2nd Street station), all the buses that turn around at or near Penn's Landing (5, 12, 17, 21, 33, 42, 48), and a few other buses that pass nearby (9, 25, 38, 40, 44, 47, 57, 61).

This week's topic: Are the holidays over yet?

"Come for the beer, stay for the check"

NPR poster child Garrison Keillor hates gays with kids, Jews who write Christmas songs

Garrison Keillor, thrice-married and with two children by two different wives, back in 2007 on why gays shouldn't be parents:

Under the old monogamous system, we didn't have the problem of apportioning Thanksgiving and Christmas among your mother and stepdad, your dad and his third wife, your mother-in-law and her boyfriend Hal, and your father-in-law and his boyfriend Chuck. Today, serial monogamy has stretched the extended family to the breaking point. A child can now grow up with eight or nine or 10 grandparents -- Gampa, Gammy, Goopa, Gumby, Papa, Poopsy, Goofy, Gaga and Chuck -- and need a program to keep track of the actors.

Garrison Keillor in 2009 on why Jews shouldn't write Christmas songs, like "White Christmas," "Winter Wonderland," "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)," "I'll Be Home for Christmas," "Silver Bells," etc.:

And all those lousy holiday songs by Jewish guys that trash up the malls every year, Rudolph and the chestnuts and the rest of that dreck. Did one of our guys write ‘Grab your loafers, come along if you wanna, and we’ll blow that shofar for Rosh Hashanah’? No, we didn’t. Christmas is a Christian holiday -- if you’re not in the club, then buzz off.

I'm not sure where Jesus said that. Is that sentiment part of the whole "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword" thing (Matt. 10:34)?

Why does anyone listen to "A Prairie Home Companion" any more? I never did understand why Robert Altman made a movie about it -- what a waste and a tarnish to a brilliant body of work.

Amanda Palmer on why Lady Gaga is great

Attention, Brendan! Amanda Palmer explains it all for you: Lady Gaga is one of the canniest and best pop music entertainers out there, in a tradition that Madonna trailblazed in the early 1980s.

Note from the bunker during an early season snowstorm

Snow continues to fall and is predicted to let up only sometime after midnight.

I have bourbon.

I have brownies baking in the oven.

The cat is staring at me a little too intently and is purring a little aggressively.

Did I mention I have bourbon? And a bottle of wine that was supposed to be a Christmas gift for someone. There are a few more shopping days left if I find I need to replace it.

A blow to patent troll forum shoppers everywhere

The Eastern District of Texas is famously -- er, at least in patent litigation circles -- a "rocket docket" with a judge experienced in dealing with patent cases. This is good for patent plaintiff litigators, because the discovery process is expedited: "Gimme all yer documents now! The Markham hearing is next week, and trial starts next month." Further, the parties don't have to educate the judge on patent caselaw, where there are very specific issues that come up, over and over again, and which the Federal Circuit exclusively addresses. It's a plaintiff-friendly courtroom environment with a jury pool that has a reputation for being sympathetic to patent infringement "victims" whose ideas and hard work have been "stolen."

So you get infringement cases with plaintiffs, especially patent troll plaintiffs, that have pretty much no connection with the Eastern District of Texas trying to find some way, any way to get the case tried there. Until this month, when Nintendo won a mandamus order (PDF) for its lawsuit to be transfered to where it belongs, namely its home venue of the Western District of Washington:

Nintendo [. . .] asked the [Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit] to transfer the case from the Eastern District of Texas to the Western District of Washington, arguing that the dispute had no meaningful connection to Texas. Nintendo is a Japanese company with a Redmond, Wash.-based affilate; [plaintiff] Motiva is an Ohio company; none of the primary witnesses had any connection to Texas, and no evidence was located there, Nintendo maintained. Motiva countered that Nintenda [sic] had not met its burden of proving that another venue would clearly be more convenient. The sale of Wii prodcuts [sic] in Texas was sufficient to give the court jurisdiction over the case, Motiva argued. In June, federal district court judge Leonard Davis sided with Motiva and denied Nintendo's request.

This is the standard argument for forum-shopping in a patent infringement case. "But, judge! They sell their product here! Thus, they should reasonably expect to be haled into court here!" This gets you a couple of points on your patent litigation exam; it's apparently enough for Judge Davis; but the Federal Circuit is tired of it:

In its mandamus order, the Federal Circuit panel found that Judge Davis "clearly abused his discretion" for refusing to transfer the Nintendo case, explaining that "this case features a stark contrast in relevance, convenience, and fairness between the two venues [as n]o parties, witnesses, or evidence have any material connection to the venue chosen by the plaintiff." The court pointedly noted that for similar reasons it had also ordered the transfer of cases brought against TS Tech, Genentech, and Hoffmann-La Roche out of the Eastern District of Texas.

The question now is whether Motiva will file a petition for rehearing before a full panel of the Federal Circuit, and then, if they get the same result, whether they'll pursue taking it to the Supreme Court. If it does go all the way, will SCOTUS slap down the Federal Circuit yet again, as it's done so many times in the past few years?

And when are we gonna get an answer on Bilski, anyway?

On the ABA's "Legal Rebels" thing

Will someone please explain to me the theory behind how the legal profession will be improved by lawyers buying merchandise that has "LEGAL REBEL" printed on it?

Driberally tonight

Drinking Liberally is a weekly social gathering where progressives talk politics and get to know one another. In Center City Philadelphia, we meet on Tuesday nights at Triumph Brewery's upstairs bar, where there are drink and food specials from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. I hope to see you there!

Triumph Brewery is at 117 Chestnut Street in Old City. It's conveniently SEPTA-accessible via the Market-Frankford El (2nd Street station), all the buses that turn around at or near Penn's Landing (5, 12, 17, 21, 33, 42, 48), and a few other buses that pass nearby (9, 25, 38, 40, 44, 47, 57, 61).

This week's topic: The Flyers, the Sixers, and the Phils (for trading Cliff Lee after his Game 1 of the 2009 World Series): three reasons why the stadium area at Broad and Pattison is called Philadelphia's sports complex.

"Come for the beer, stay for the check"

Monday art house: "MacBeth - a comedie, Act I"

Ish Klein and Erik Ransom in an EvilolivE 3000 production:

South Philly High's principal: not good enough for New Jersey schools

LaGreta Brown, principal of South Philadelphia High School, was recruited for the Philadelphia School District even though her faculty at Atlantic City High School gave her a no-confidence vote when she was principal there. Furthermore:

The New Jersey State attorney general’s office also once tried to strip her of her administrative license after allegations that she had endangered children by ordering the fire alarm system of Atlantic City High School to be dismantled during a trash-can fire. The charges, however, were dismissed by the NJ Department of Education in 2007 after an investigation [PDF].

After the “no-confidence” vote, Brown was later transferred to lead an alternative high school. She was then sent to an elementary school in the district.

An article in the Press of Atlantic City on Nov. 4, 2006 said that the “no confidence” vote came after allegations that she "mistreated students and staff."

The Philadelphia Public School Notebook blog continues with an explanation of why Brown was considered unfit to lead a high school:

In 2000, shortly after she became the first female principal of Atlantic City High, a warrant was issued when she failed to appear in court for a harassment suit from a former cafeteria worker. In 2002 [ ... ] the city fire department found 63 fire violations in the building, with two counts of falsifying fire reports "that lead directly back to Brown," according to the Press. And a teacher who accused her of harassment after she denied him a day off to observe Passover resigned after he realized she would not be reprimanded.

Brown was suspended with pay in 2007 from her position at the New York Avenue school for unspecified charges of "insubordination."

The article paints a portrait of an autocrat with demonstrated insensitivity to cultural diversity and little respect for the courts. And yet the Philly public schools actively sought her out to lead South Philadelphia High School. Since giving lip service to Asian immigrant students before the school year began, she has "failed to meet with the Asian community groups" that she promised she would work with and has not had the courtesy or basic professionalism to return their phone calls.

Why the Philadelphia schools thought that someone who was barely fit to run an elementary school in Jersey should lead a troubled urban high school of over 1400 teenagers is beyond me.

The complaints from South Philly High's Asian students

Via Helen Gym at Young Philly Politics:

South Philadelphia High School is not a safe place for us.

We are targeted because we are Asian immigrants. Every day we face taunts and violence. It hurts when we are attacked by other students. It hurts more when school staff ignore, deny, or cover up the racial attacks against us.

For the last three days we have chosen to boycott our school in order to get a real education about how to ensure our safety. This is what we have found.

On Thursday, attacks against us happened throughout the day both inside and outside of school. Adults in the school are supposed to care for us and to make us safe. Instead this is what happened. School staff:

Allowed large groups of 15-20 students to wander through the building for over four hours. These students were reported to be looking into classrooms for targets of their attacks;

Overrode one security guard’s efforts to keep a large group of students from the second floor where they did not have classes and purposefully allowed them to go running through the halls;

Ignored Asian students’ fears about going to the lunchroom following these clear signs of trouble in the building;

Forced Asian students to follow a security guard to the lunchroom where they were attacked and beaten by a crowd of students in front of several adult staff;

Failed to call all the parents of injured students for several hours after the attacks;

Refused to allow some Asian students who were seeking shelter and safety in the school at the end of the school day to stay at the school, until community advocates called 911 and arrived on the scene;

Forced Asian students who had been assaulted to leave the school building even though they were hurt and frightened;

Discounted Asian students’ fears of walking home and to their transit stops;

Directed Asian students into the streets where crowds of students had gathered and where immediately afterward they were assaulted;

Neglected to call the students and families who were victimized by the attacks to either check on their well-being or to get a full report of what happened to them;

Failed to conduct a full investigation of what happened;

Downplayed the seriousness of the attacks until they were reported in the media;

Disregarded students’ and families’ fears and recklessly called on students to return to school before even investigating what happened on Thursday; and

Refused to accept responsibility for the mistakes of school staff and administration on that day and placed all the blame on the student attackers.

Most of the students at South Philadelphia High School – Asian, African American, Latino and white – are just like us. They are trying to get an education in a school where they do not feel safe or respected. We are calling on the adults in the school and in the School District to take responsibility for the unsafe environment of South Philadelphia High School that makes it hard for all of us to learn there.

I see knee-jerk black-against-Asian racism around town on a nearly daily basis. It's a bit of an elephant in the room when it comes to Philadelphia race relations, I think. Arlene Ackerman, Ed.D., the CEO of the Philadelphia public schools, is quoted in the article there as saying, "In our rush to sensationalize this latest incident, let us not as adults criminalize or victimize any racial group of students with a stroke of the pen or careless words of blame and fingerpointing." With this comment, at best she's deliberately ignoring the racial foundation of the problem. (As a community member testified: "It is a racial issue not because of the race of the attackers. It is a racial issue because students were targeted for attack because they are Asian. Throughout an entire school day, Asian students were randomly attacked, and school staff failed to protect them.") Or, worse, Ackerman is denying the reality of the experiences that the Asian immigrant students at South Philadelphia High School have had, with the excuse that the incidents haven't been reported. But she can hardly claim plausible deniability when the victimized kids point out that the school's safety manager has systematically refused to file incident reports for the express purpose of minimizing the number of incidents recorded.

Where does the buck stop? Ackerman wants it made clear that it's not her fault, because she never heard about the problems. The school is saying that it's not their fault, because the "attacks" are mere roughhousing and the Asian kids are making a mountain out of a molehill, and anyway the Asian kids started it.

Got that? All the adults are blaming the children. The school and district leadership are refusing to own their failures, and instead they're alternatively blaming the victims and denying the truth of their experiences. When a parent does that to a kid, you end up with an adult who had a lousy model for parenting and will have some issues to overcome when they have their own kids. When a school does that to a community, you end up with a whole city of adults who perpetuate the violence, racism, and dysfunctional inter-racial relations that it taught them as children.

Men I've dated, part n in a series

One evening after I'd put my daughter to bed, I was dumped by phone. When the call came in, I recognized the name on the phone's display, and after I'd answered with my usual cheery greeting, I heard:

"Well, I'm calling because I'm breaking up with you."

It was an interesting phrase from someone who'd never called me his girlfriend to begin with.

I'd been warned that he was a serial dater and a commitment-phobe. He's lived in the same bachelor pad for over a decade and, though he's had steady, highly remunerative employment since he finished university, he has procrastinated buying a home. He talks often about buying a condo near his workplace. Now, condos are great. I've lived in three of them, and I like not having to be personally responsible for, e.g., roof repairs. But a condo is admittedly often a stepping-stone to "real" home ownership of an actual house, with a lawn and a tree or two and a driveway -- in other words, a way to avoid commitment to "real" home ownership. And he was putting off making a decision to even buy a condo, in the face of the first-time homebuyer stimulus incentive, too. Though far be it from me to try to force upon others my own boring bourgeois values. In any event, between the home-buying delay, his reluctance to have sex with me in the previous week, and the content of a few "how's our relationship going" conversations, I had already been expecting the phone call for a couple of days before the phone finally rang.

Several months ago, he decided to get rid of his things. He wanted to live more lightly and not be encumbered by so much stuff, he told me. So he got rid of books, clothes, CDs, videos and DVDs, kitchenware, boardgames, linens, and so on. Because he'd rid himself of his kitchenware, he used plastic plates and Solo cups. He had a few coffee mugs and a brandy snifter upended in the kitchen sink. The fridge held an assortment of 2-liter bottles of soda. The cabinets held some packages of disposable plates. The dining table served as a liquor cabinet.

When a practicing Zen Buddhist friend of mine simplified her life a dozen years ago, she also got rid of a lot of her kitchenware. She kept a single bowl, a plate, a set of flatware, a coffee mug (and her moka pot), and a stripped-down assortment of cooking essentials. Far be it from me to question a person's motivation, but dare I say that my Buddhist friend went about her lifestyle simplification process with a little more meaning and purpose than this guy did?

Unfortunately for a commitment-phobe, we started dating just before the end-of-year holidays. My family Thanksgiving was slated to be a brunch affair, because my sibling had numerous commitments with her spouse's relations; and since my nuclear family is small I invited him along. He reciprocated by taking me to his family Thanksgiving later in the day. What I thought was a fun and highly entertaining way to meet new people, he interpreted as "moving too fast."

Toward what? I don't really know. I have no intention to leave my home and share my living space with another adult any time soon. I haven't been drafting a pre-nup for myself nor adoption papers for my daughter. I wasn't putting together a trousseau in a hope chest. It is true that I usually go from 0 to 60 very quickly in a relationship. But generally I don't have a destination in mind, and I'd told him so a few days before the phone call.

He could only repeat that we were moving too fast. He asked me if I had anything to say, and I said no. Clearly, I told him, he had some impression of what I was doing in the relationship that didn't jibe with what he wanted in the relationship, but I wasn't going to be able to change his mind.

The last morning that we were together, I went to his (nearly empty) clothes closet and hid the blouse I'd worn the previous night to a party, in among his work shirts. Maybe what I'd intended as a joke came across to him as some kind of hint that we should buy a house together. Perhaps it was the last straw for him. Or perhaps it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

The question I'm left with though is, "Why now?" And I don't mean in the sense of sentimentality about the holidays; I mean in a very practical sense. I'll have a ton of free time between Christmas and New Year's, and he's got a ton of vacation time set aside for the second half of the month. Why kick your girlfriend to the curb now, rather than enjoying all that free time together? Would he really, truly rather sit at home and twiddle his thumbs, or go see a bunch of movies on his own, or hang out only with his guy friends? Put frankly, the sex was very good. The conversation was intelligent on both sides. We're both morning people. I liked his jokes, his stories, and his family. And the sex was very good.

Oh, well. It was fun while it lasted. And I didn't want to go to his New Year's Eve party anyway.

Driberally tonight

Drinking Liberally is a weekly social gathering where progressives talk politics and get to know one another. In Center City Philadelphia, we meet on Tuesday nights at Triumph Brewery -- this week at the platform bar downstairs -- where there are drink and food specials from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. I hope to see you there!

Triumph Brewery is at 117 Chestnut Street in Old City. It's conveniently SEPTA-accessible via the Market-Frankford El (2nd Street station), all the buses that turn around at or near Penn's Landing (5, 12, 17, 21, 33, 42, 48), and a few other buses that pass nearby (9, 25, 38, 40, 44, 47, 57, 61).

This week's topic: Asian-American students are boycotting South Philadelphia High School this week because school officials have failed to address black-on-Asian violence there for literally years. "Officials" includes staff and administration at the school as well as police, the regional superintendent of Philly public schools, and the district's chief safety executive, leading the attacked kids to seriously consider pursuing self-help. Because, clearly, what the Philadelphia public schools need right now is an all-out race war. But far be it from me to suggest that superintendent Dr. Arlene Ackerman is insensitive to the problems of students of color: regarding Philadelphia's "persistently dangerous" schools, she's aware of and concerned by the “'gray areas' relating to incident reporting." Really? When 26 Asian-American kids are attacked in a single day at a single high school and all the newspapers cover it, that's a "gray area"?

"Come for the beer, stay for the check"

Unintentionally obscene evangelist quote of the day

A high-school friend of mine posted this quote, which he attributes to Nancy Ortberg, on his Facebook page today:

Jesus is like a Warhead candy. For those of you not familiar with Warheads, think of them as SweeTarts on steroids. The moment you place a Warhead in your mouth, your whole body responds, forcing you to decide if you can take the intensity or spit it out.

Just, wow.

CDC's abortion surveillance 2006 report released

A couple of weeks ago, the CDC released its report on U.S. abortion statistics for 2006.

In that year, as reported to the CDC, about as many women as the entire population of the state of Delaware (i.e., about 850,000) voluntarily terminated a pregnancy in the United States. (That's a lot of murder prosecutions!) Assuming all U.S. residents -- and the figure is reported abortions performed in the U.S., not reported American women obtaining abortions -- that comes to about 16 women age 15 to 44 per 1,000, or about 2 women in every 300. Women under 20 and minor women accounted for about 1/8 of all abortions. The vast majority of abortions (over 60%) were performed at or before 8 weeks' gestation.

The summary page includes a discussion of methodology and links to over 20 tables of organized data. My friend Amie Newman has drawn out and explained some of the more interesting facts and figures. And she concludes her post at RH Reality Check with a reminder about the real goal of Crisis Pregnancy Centers and other anti-choice organizations:

Crisis Pregnancy Centers, most often created and run as an outreach arm of a faith-based, anti-choice organization, do not provide medical care and so do not provide family planning or contraception services to pregnant clients. Instead, they repeat falsities and lies claiming that birth control methods like the pill or emergency contraception (Plan B) cause abortions.

If there is anything we can take from reports like these it is that an increased focus on ensuring that all women in this country have access to the education and tools necessary to prevent unintended pregnancy should be accessible health care for all women of reproductive health age.

Is David Sirota freaking kidding me?

David Sirota asks a series of less-than-thoughtful "simple" questions about President Obama's plan for dealing with Afghanistan. I don't agree with Sirota's characterization of Obama's plan as a "massive escalation," so I have a few questions for Sirota myself.

One, the President has set an 18-month deadline for re-evaluating what's going on, though granted it's not a timeline for complete withdrawal. How is this a "massive escalation"?

Two, what would Sirota have the administration do? Withdraw our forces completely right away without doing something to stabilize the land mass between Iran and Pakistan? Why does Sirota like acid thrown in schoolgirls' faces so much?

And three, regarding his "Where's the antiwar movement" complaint, there was a protest at Philadelphia City Hall yesterday afternoon, which some friends of mine attended. Sirota lives in Denver, I think, so of course he wouldn't have known about it. But there are protests planned for Denver and Colorado Springs. They're small, to be sure, but it's pretty lame of Sirota to try to make his point by denying their existence -- he'd get better mileage out of the situation by decrying how few people are protesting despite the toll of the Afghanistan war on the soldiers at Fort Carson. Or if he's genuinely disappointed at the lack of a sizeable antiwar protest, then why isn't he organizing and attending one?

I don't envy the President's position. I don't know what I'd do if Afghanistan were thrown in my lap, but I don't think Sirota's questions are particularly thoughtful. I think it's staggeringly naïve to imply that it's in our nation's best interests to quit Afghanistan and leave the country in the hands of militants, terrorists, grifters, grafters, and acid-throwing, eschatological Dark Ages religionists -- with a nuclearizing state to the west and a fully nuclear state to the east. Is Sirota freaking kidding me?

And I'm a pacifist! It's all nice and liberal and sweet to complain about how we can't bring peace to Afghanistan, but that's begging the question that bringing peace to Afghanistan is President Obama's goal. At this point, he should probably settle for helping establish a stable government that, if it does get its hands on nuclear weapons, won't use them to blow away the infidels across the way in Europe, invade Pakistan on the one side, go after Iran's oil fields on the other (does Iran need to be given a legitimate reason to expand its nuclear capabilities?), and exact some long-festering revenge on the ex-Soviets to boot. In the face of these real geopolitical questions, Sirota's "simple" questions are just that: simple and naïve.

Driberally tonight

Drinking Liberally is a weekly social gathering where progressives talk politics and get to know one another. In Center City Philadelphia, we meet on Tuesday nights at Triumph Brewery's upstairs bar, where there are drink and food specials from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. I hope to see you there!

Triumph Brewery is at 117 Chestnut Street in Old City. It's conveniently SEPTA-accessible via the Market-Frankford El (2nd Street station), all the buses that turn around at or near Penn's Landing (5, 12, 17, 21, 33, 42, 48), and a few other buses that pass nearby (9, 25, 38, 40, 44, 47, 57, 61).

This week's topic: Don't forget your SEPTA November pass refund! You can trade in your weekly pass from the week of the strike for a full refund, or you can get $20 off your December monthly pass. Discounts are not available if your card was punched for a regional rail trip.

"Come for the beer, stay for the check"